This year’s Bradford International Film Festival coincides with the 20th anniversary of the opening of Pictureville cinema in what was, back then, the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television.

The big attraction of the new museum when it opened in 1983 was its giant IMAX cinema screen; but it did not have a purpose-built cinema that could offer a choice of new films and classic films until the opening of Pictureville.

Steven Spielberg’s film Hook along with Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Bigas Luna’s film Jamon, Jamon, starring Penelope Cruz, were the first featured films.

“Reservoir Dogs,” said Duncan McGregor, the museum’s projection team manager, “gave us our first strong volume of people that we hadn’t seen before. It took a while for people to get used to the fact that there was a new screen in town.”

However, the creation of Pictureville at a cost of £1.25 million in 1992 was not without controversy. It was built on the site of the Library Theatre, which had been a popular venue for Bradford’s myriad amateur dramatic societies. Suddenly, they were without a city-centre location.

Bradford Playhouse and Film Theatre was affected too. In 1991 the British Film Institute announced that it was re-directing its cash support for film from the Chapel Street theatre to the new Pictureville cinema. Bradford Council and the museum pledged to work together to help support the Playhouse; but the writing was on the wall.

Bill Lawrence, the museum’s head of cinema until 2008, said: “That was the period of VHF when people were reluctant to invest in city centre cinemas. Out of town multiplexes were springing up. Rank decided to pull out of Leeds and Bradford and build a multiplex on the border of both cities at Thornbury.

“So Pictureville went against the grain of what was happening. It was a city-centre cinema that had access to the museum’s car park. The carpeting, decoration and the seats made it one of the best auditoria in the country. And that’s still the case. The technical equipment is top notch, the sound equipment I’m told is the best in the world.”

One of the unsual features of Pictureville when it was opened was the public window into the projection room. You could watch as huge cartwheels of film were loaded on to projectors. But, as Duncan McGregor said, all that has changed.

“The image of a huge film reel and a small digital hard drive can say a lot about how things have developed in the digital era. Also, we were the only place in the world for approximately 12 years to publicly resurrect Cinerama,” he said.

“It’s the 60th anniversary of three-strip cinerama during the film festival. The screening of The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm is one of the big draws because it’s not been seen for 40 years. It’s the only surviving print in the world. I acquired it from Australia,” he added.

This April marks Duncan’s 35th year in cinema.